June 8, 2013

Well, the long wait is over. “What is Enlightenment?” is now done and ready for purchase. The font is a little smaller than usual so that we could reduce the gigantic page count of stories even more, and so everything is in one book. Countless stories from many traditions, but most of all, the logic of the spiritual path showing you that everyone is attaining the same thing despite differences in religious dogma taught to the masses. The readers have said “this will be an underground classic sure to change the modern concept of religion.”

I tried very hard to make this worthy of being your FIRST BOOK on the spiritual trail because if you don’t know the target objective of religious practice is enlightenment, then you are likely to waste your time and go astray in spiritual cultivation. It turns out that all the religions are targeting this same end result possibility. In one week the introductory Createspace (Amazon.com) price will be raised, so the best time to buy is now. Here are the short details …
Book1: “What is Enlightenment?”

(Order this book if you want first hand accounts of enlightenment from nearly every major spiritual tradition including the big 3 Western paths, an analysis of “God’s characteristics” according to all these paths, retranslations of famous Zen stories, the various stages of the spiritual path linked across all the major traditions, why and how to cultivate samadhi/dhyana as the enlightenment prerequisite, and much more. This book contains the words of those widely recognized as having achieved enlightenment, including many Christian and even Moslem saints or ancient Greeks, and puts to rest all the strange notions people commonly have as to what really is enlightenment. This should be your absolute FIRST BOOK on the spiritual path of meditation practice because if you don’t know the target of self-realization or awakening, then you are likely to waste your time or go astray.)

(Order this book if you are an educator, national policymaker or have young elementary school children and want to learn the power of correct praising, why you should teach them martial arts and the basics of natural medicine, how to instill within them a sense of virtue, the importance of role-modeling and environmental “perfuming” influences, and so on. It details many of the educational practices of a famous international boarding school in China that combines the best of Eastern and Western thoughts, whose curriculum development was guided by Nan Huai-chin)

March 17, 2013

Many years ago, Lee Shu-Mei and I wrote a book, “Twenty-Five Doors to Meditation,” to provide brief instructions for a wide variety of meditation methods. We wanted people to know that there were countless meditation methods in the world they could choose from for their personal practice. This choice of variety helps people get started and understand the non-sectarian nature of meditation and its results.

Everyone is attracted to different methods, so the emphasis was on variety and why each method works. If you don’t know how and why a method works, you probably won’t practice correctly.

Many people starting using that book as a teaching text because it was the first of its type, and as advanced as it was, I wanted to provide more hard-to-find details on basic meditation methods. This became “The Little Book of Meditation,” which is the book you really need to get if you want to understand all the ins and outs and details of meditation practice.

You can buy, for instance, hundreds of special (and expensive) books on Tibetan Buddhist meditation and never find the comprehensive information in this one book that gets rid of complexity, superstition and mysticism. The problem is that the book, which has “little” in the title, became large. I initially only wanted a small book, but “The Little Book of Meditation” grew and grew in size because it is so comprehensive. Now it isn’t so “little” anymore, but it is one stop shopping for the topic of meditation. If you have read a lot and want to clear things up, or have been practicing for years and want comprehensive information, or just one book to get started and keep for life, this is the book to get. But it’s large, so that’s a turn off for some people who want something thin, quick and simple.

Finally a friend asked me to produce a very simple, how-to book on how to meditate because of what all her clients were telling her. The result of that request is “Easy Meditation Lessons,” the simple book I always wanted to produce. It is so easy to read and follow, and you can crack it open and read it in one sitting to get started at meditation practice. How to sit, how to breath, what to do with your mind … it basically tells you how to get started at meditation starting from ground zero.

If you want a book for family or friends that is small and thin and non-religious, this is it. There are no discussions on higher spiritual states or gong-fu, nothing about Buddhism/Taoism/Vedanta/etc. There are just the simple SCIENTIFIC steps on how to meditate correctly. Because yoga and martial arts are popular, the easy meditation lessons tie in with those traditions.

This is the book I always wanted to write, and so here it is at $10. Well, $9.95, which is its introductory discount price before it jumps 40%. It’s 110 pages with big print, so you can read it quickly, and the type of book you want to stack up on give to friends when they ask you how to meditate.

If you are a beginning meditator, or want to stock up on a non-religious meditation book as gifts to friends to help get them started, this is right up your alley. If you have been meditating for years then there is probably no reason to get it unless you want to revisit the basics.

Within this simple book you will learn how to sit properly, the terms people use in meditation practice, how to watch your thoughts, listen to sounds to quiet your mind, concentrate on mental images, and watch your breathing. These are the most basic methods for quieting your mind, reducing stress, and learning relaxation. To learn how to meditate, this is the book to get.

There is even a Question and Answer section at the back addressing the most common questions I get asked by email all the time. I cannot tell you the number of times I get crazy questions such as “Does meditation lead to possession?” or strange things like that.

I think you will like this book. It is the one I always wanted to write, and what I would use if I was doing teaching seminars, so it is very thin, easy to read and yet valuable. It isn’t full of fluff or wishy-washy New Age nonsense. It gets rid of all the wrong instructions out there and I guarantee you will be practicing correctly in just one sitting with this information since we basically use these instructions when teaching in China. Here it is at the introductory price:

December 18, 2012

In my latest book, WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT?, I have an appendix which is an entire book in itself. It is from a new translation of the various delusional states of cultivation presented in the Surangama Sutra. These are all sorts of experience, or categories of experience (your experience does not have to follow the same pattern exactly, but just belong to that category) that meditators and cultivators who use other methods sometimes experience when they are making great progress on the path.

The book WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT? won’t be out until after the new year because it is so big (you try to edit 550 pages and see how long it takes), but here’s an interesting excerpt of the types of things people sometimes experience because of their spiritual cultivation which Buddha warned is not enlightenment/sainthood at all. The entire appendix is a new translation with relevant comments and explanations for this very important material.

Here is the excerpt:

The Ten Mara-States of the Skandha of Form

“Ananda, you must know that when you sit in meditation your thoughts will eventually disappear (you must sit in a place to cultivate toward enlightenment and dissolve away false thoughts). When you are free of thoughts, your mind will become clear and this state of pure clarity will be the same within movement or stillness, and remain the same whether you remember it or forget it (your mind will seem clear whether thoughts are moving or not, and whether you notice this clarity or get so used to it that you forget about it). In this state as you enter samadhi, you are like a man with clear eyes who is standing in the dark (and thus cannot see anything in the darkness even though their eyes are fine). Although your mind is clear, it is not yet illuminated. This is because the skandha of form conditions your meditation. If your eyes are clear, and light shines through in all directions, you will no longer dwell in darkness. This is called ‘the end of the skandha of form,’ which allows you to transcend the kalpa of defilement. If we examine the cause of the form skandha, the root cause is solidified false thinking.

[Editor: Buddha says that our physical body of “form” is basically solidified false thinking (solidified consciousness), which is why thoughts can affect the body. This is why there is such as thing as what science calls the mind-body connection; mind can affect the body since the body is also a type of consciousness. On the road of spiritual cultivation, you must first free yourself from identifying with the body and thereby dissolve one layer of false thoughts, or mental attachments, so that the mind then experiences a state of empty clarity. In other words, you must first empty out or detach from the form skandha. At this level of achievement your chi channels become open and the warm yang chi is often felt moving through the channel orbits of the body.

The state of clear clarity you reach by detaching from the skandha of form is often described as the “mind being bright” because a layer of false thoughts is now gone. At this level your mind is still blemished by the fact that you still attach to feeling states and sensations that arise in the mind and body as you reflect on the circumstances around you with likes or dislikes. A situation arises and because of natural responsiveness (receptivity), feelings naturally arise within your body that you know via your mind. Then you attach to or reject those states because of liking and disliking. You like or dislike those sensations, and so you try to go into them or out of them rather than just let them arise freely as images do in a mirror without clinging. This level of clinging to these false thoughts that are feeling states or sensations is “cultivating through the sensation skandha.” By detaching from this type of false thinking you will become detached from the sensation skandha, but you will not yet be free of the conception skandha. Nevertheless, your mind will become more like a clean mirror and no longer cling to all the feelings and sensations which arise through receptivity.

When you take a progressive step and break free of the level of “all pervading” finer thoughts that comprise the conception skandha, you will finally reach a stage of samadhi that equates to the emptying of the sixth consciousness, but you will still not have gotten rid of the concept of the I-self. To progress, you must now detach from the volition skandha by dissolving the level of hidden/concealed false thinking that underlies the net of samsara and transmigration of life throughout the cosmos. This is related to the afflicted mind or seventh consciousness of Buddhism. Although seemingly empty, a shimmering fluctuation within consciousness can still be perceived at this stage which is responsible for the sense perceptions and all classes of life. Extinguishing this level of “hidden” or “concealed” false thinking, you will finally arrive at the consciousness skandha, and to attain enlightenment must detach from a level of extremely subtle false thinking that is so subtle that you don’t see its movements. At this level of cultivation the consciousness seems still but is actually moving all the time, like a flowing river that only seems placid on its surface. You must now return clarity to its source to attain enlightenment. If you do not ultimately reach the root of consciousness which is responsible for the individual senses, but they remain separate, you will never be able to dissolve false thoughts entirely, and so you must reach the stage where false thoughts are totally abandoned, the mind is like a crystal realm of purity and perception, and in reaching the base the sense consciousnesses thus become interchangeable.

You must pass through these stages of development one by one in sequence, like untying knots on a string one after another, to get to the goal of enlightenment. They are all ultimately due to false thoughts, to transformations wrought by the capabilities of the mind. Form as a manifestation of solidified false thoughts, and everything else, is ultimately due to mind only but you have to cultivate through to the end, to discover the fundamental basis of life and the cosmos, to prove this for yourself. That is then enlightenment.]

1. “Ananda, in this state of penetration and mental clarity, the four elements of the world will no longer entwine you, and after a short time your body will become free of all hindrances (obstructions). This state is called ‘the clear consciousness merging (outwardly diffusing) into the environment.’ It is a temporary achievement resulting from your progress in meditation. It does not mean that you have reached sainthood. This stage, although it is called ‘an excellent level of attainment,’ should not be confused with sainthood. If you misinterpret it, you will become vulnerable to the demons of delusion.

2. “Ananda, once again, in this state of penetration and mental clarity, you will be able to discern every internal thing within your own body and may even see worms inside. Although you perceive your body thus, this is harmless. This state is called ‘the clear consciousness spreading (inwardly diffusing) through one’s body’ and is but a temporary achievement resulting from your progress in meditation. It does not mean that you have reached sainthood. This stage, although it is called ‘an excellent level of attainment,’ should not be confused with sainthood. If you misinterpret this, you will become vulnerable to the demons of delusion.

3. “Further, with this clear mind which penetrates both within and without, your spirit, higher and lower souls, thinking mind and will (though not your physical body) can all intermingle (go back and forth) as host and guest [using your will, you can phase/switch back and forth between being centered in the thinking mind, a pristine or bright state of clear consciousness, and feelings of internal chi]. You may also suddenly hear a voice in the air preaching the dharma or proclaiming esoteric truths in the ten directions. This state is a case of ‘the spirit and faculties alternatingly separating and unifying that is sowing good seeds (for the results of cultivation).’ It is a temporary state and is not sainthood. This stage, although it is called ‘an excellent level of attainment,’ should not be confused with sainthood. If you misinterpret it, you will become vulnerable to the demons of delusion.

4. “Further, in this clear, revealing, bright and penetrating mind, your inner illumination (brightness of mind) will shine and seem to bathe everything in the ten directions with the golden hue of sandalwood, and all living creatures will seem as if transformed into Buddhas. Suddenly, you might see (something like) Vairocana Buddha seated on a throne of heavenly light surrounded by a thousand Buddhas, who simultaneously appear on lotus blossoms in countless lands. This is called ‘the effect of the awakened spirituality of the mind,’ the penetrating light of which illuminates all the worlds. However, this is a temporary stage and is not sainthood. This stage, although it is called ‘an excellent level of attainment,’ should not be confused with sainthood. If you misinterpret it, you will become vulnerable to the demons of delusion.

5. “Further, if you try to continuously contemplate using this clear and penetrating mind without pause, by repressing and subduing your thoughts, the effort will produce the desire for release. Suddenly, then, the ten directions of space will be filled with the colors of the seven or of a hundred precious gems. Without hindering one another, the green, yellow, red, and white colors will each manifest in utter purity. This is called ‘the effect of excessive repression.’ This is a temporary stage and is not sainthood. This stage, although it is called ‘an excellent level of attainment,’ should not be confused with sainthood. If you misinterpret it, you will become vulnerable to the demons of delusion.

6. “Further, if you try to investigate with this clear and penetrating mind, your inner light will become concentrated, and suddenly at midnight you will be able to see all sorts of objects in a dark room as clearly as in broad daylight. These objects will persist and will not disappear. This is called ‘refining the mind and clear perception until one is able to see distinctly in the dark.’ This is a temporary stage and is not sainthood. This stage, although it is called ‘an excellent level of attainment,’ should not be confused with sainthood. If you misinterpret it, you will become vulnerable to the demons of delusion.

7. “As your mind merges with emptiness, suddenly your four limbs may feel like grass or trees. Even if burned by fire or cut with a knife, you may feel nothing. Flame cannot burn you, and cutting your flesh seems like trying to whittle wood. This (immunity) is called ‘the union of inner and outer states (mind and externals) eliminating the four elements as the mind merges with emptiness.’ This is a temporary stage and is not sainthood. This stage, although it is called ‘an excellent level of attainment,’ should not be confused with sainthood. If you misinterpret it, you will become vulnerable to the demons of delusion.

8. “As your mind becomes pure and clean, when you have reached a very high level, you may suddenly see all quarters of the great earth, with its mountains and rivers, transformed into the Buddha’s pure land, complete with the all-pervading radiance of the seven precious jewels. You may also see Buddhas (enlightened beings), as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, filling space, together with beautiful temples and palaces. You may be able to see hells below and celestial palaces above, all without obstruction. This is called ‘the transformation of deep-rooted thoughts of likes and dislikes through prolonged contemplation.’ However, this is not sainthood. This stage, although it is called ‘an excellent level of attainment,’ should not be confused with sainthood. If you misinterpret it, you will become vulnerable to the demons of delusion.

9. “As your mind penetrates further and deeper, you may suddenly be able to see far away market-places, wells, streets, and lanes in the middle of the night. You may see relatives, clansman, and family members, and may even hear them speak. This is called ‘remote visions due to the hard-pressed mind (because of overwork) taking flight.’ However, this is not sainthood. This stage, although it is called ‘an excellent level of attainment,’ should not be confused with sainthood. If you misinterpret it, you will become vulnerable to the demons of delusion.

10. “As this mind penetrates to a further extent, you will see that the bodies of men of good wisdom (sages) seem to undergo countless changes in all sorts of ways without reason. This is called “an improper mind that is possessed by mischievous ghosts or heavenly demons.” You may experience Deva Mara entering your innermost mind and then spontaneously preach the dharma and its profound meaning. This is not sainthood. Not confusing this with sainthood, Mara’s influences will subside. If you misinterpret it, you will become vulnerable to the demons of delusion.

“Ananda, these ten states may occur in dhyana as the result of ones’ meditative mental efforts interacting with the skandha of form. Dull and confused (ignorant and deluded) practitioners do not evaluate their own level of accomplishments. Hence, when they experience these phenomena, in their confusion they fail to recognize them and wrongly proclaim that they have become saints and are enlightened. For uttering such a great lie, they will fall into the hell of uninterrupted punishment. After my nirvana, in the Dharma ending age, you must proclaim these teachings so that the heavenly demons cannot take advantage of these states and so that practitioners can (be on guard to) protect themselves and realize the supreme Tao.

The Ten Mara States of the Skandha of Sensation

“Ananda, when disciples practicing samatha (cessation or calm abiding) to realize samadhi are no longer hindered by the skandha of form, they can see the mind of all the Buddhas (the enlightened mind) just as images (reflections) appear in a clear mirror. A cultivator will then feel as if he has won something but cannot make use of it. It is like a sleeping man having a nightmare whose mind is clear and whose limbs are free, yet who cannot move his limbs and feels paralyzed because of some deviant influence. This is ‘the skandha of sensation’ that conditions one’s meditation. If that sense of paralysis ceases, then your mind can leave the body to look back at your own face, and will be free to come and go as you please without any hindrances. This is called ‘the cessation of the skandha of sensation,’ and when it comes to an end the practitioner can thereby transcend the defilement of views. If we examine the cause of the sensation skandha, a wrong understanding of (relationship to) false thinking is its source.

[Editor: “Sensations” refers to bodily sensations or feelings that are subjective reactions to phenomena. They arise because we contact phenomena, and then responses arise in the mind that we like or dislike the phenomena, and then we tend to cling to or reject these feelings and sensations after we’ve instantaneously evaluated their relatedness to us as pleasant or unpleasant. When you can extinguish clinging to these sensations and truly detach from the body, thus “emptying it out,” you will experience what is described as unspeakable joy and ease due to the peace and quiet, and it is also described as merging with the universe since you are no longer mentally attaching to the body.

This is the first dhyana, and this description explains why it is called “The Joyous Ground Born of Separation” or the “vitarka (coarse thought) samadhi” within Hinduism and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. You can achieve this because you can finally separate from the body along with mental and physical sensations. As long as one does not cling to any thought or experience they will always experience a bright/clear mind at this stage, but that brightness/empty clarity will seem to dim as soon as they engage in any type of mental clinging to abide in thoughts or an experiential state.

In winning liberation from the form and sensation skandhas, and achieving the will-born body, we say you achieve the “initial fruits” of the path, and reach the stream-entrant phase of practice called the Srotapanna stage of Arhatship who has just awakened to the path. You no longer lack confidence in cultivation teachings or doubt they lead to enlightenment because with this samadhi attainment you now understand them and have proved the basis of the path. You will no longer subscribe to the Hinayana belief that purity laws and the path of religious discipline will attain you enlightenment, because you have seen this is not so because of your achievement, and will no longer believe in the existence of a permanent self because you will see that the self-idea is just shifting/transforming consciousness, a set of thoughts which create the notion “I am.”]

1. “Ananda, cultivators reaching this stage of practice will experience a great clarity. As a result of excessive inner pressure (self-control), they may be suddenly overwhelmed by a feeling of very great sadness. As this feeling swells, if they for instance should see mosquitoes and gadflies they might view them as infant children that need to be protected. With great pity in their hearts, they might find themselves spontaneously bursting into tears (for all sorts of situations such as this). This is called ‘a breakdown due to overexertion in practice.’ They should understand that this is harmless. This type of experience does not denote sainthood, and they should understand that after a time it will automatically disappear. Should they confuse this with sainthood, the mara of sadness will enter their minds. Then, they might (for instance) occasionally feel great sadness upon meeting people and at times spontaneously burst into uncontrolled sobbing. Lacking the proper dhyana (samadhi) practice they will certainly fall.

2. “Ananda, those disciples who practice dhyana will find that as the skandha of form recedes, and the skandha of sensation manifests, they make more progress and may feel overwhelmingly excited and develop an attitude of unlimited boldness. With a fierceness of mind they may resolve to equal all the Buddhas, or may (do something like) proclaim that they can transcend innumerable kalpas in a single moment of thought. They should understand that this is harmless. This type of experience does not denote sainthood, and they should understand that after a time it will automatically disappear. If they confuse this state with sainthood, the mara (delusion) of wild nonsense (wildness) will enter their minds. They may become boastful and arrogant when they meet other people. They will become extraordinarily haughty and arrogant to the extent they will not recognize both the Buddhas above and humanity below. Lacking the proper dhyana (samadhi) practice they will certainly fall.

3. “Continuing, those disciples who practice dhyana will find that as the skandha of form recedes, and the skandha of sensation manifests, they may encounter a situation where they see no new signs of progress (they make no new headway or anticipate any) while their former attainments seem to disappear. The strength of their thought diminishes, and they enter an impasse to progress. As they encounter nothing but monotony (seeing no new signs of progress), they may enter a state of great mental dryness that leads them to indulge in unremitting deep reflection (on topics they repeated review). They may mistake this as a sign of diligence in practice. This (absentmindedness) is called ‘losing oneself due to a lack of wisdom.’ They should understand that this is harmless. This type of experience does not denote sainthood. Should they (misinterpret this and) confuse this with sainthood, the maras of non-forgettingness will enter their minds. Day and night they will hold their mind fixated in one place (on particular memories or situations). Lacking the proper dhyana (samadhi) practice they will certainly fall.

4. “Continuing, those disciples who practice dhyana will find that as the skandha of form recedes, and the skandha of sensation manifests, their faculty of wisdom may outstrip their stage of samadhi (their wisdom swells out of proportion to their dhyana). Swollen with a sense of pride, they may become convinced that they have equaled Vairocana and become prematurely satisfied with some minor progress they regard as complete attainment. This is called ‘the mind losing (its usual) common sense and becoming misled due to the power of discrimination in meditation.’ They should understand that this is harmless. This type of experience does not denote sainthood. Should they (misinterpret this and) confuse this with sainthood, the mara of self-satisfaction at inferior accomplishments will enter their minds, possibly causing them to announce to everyone they meet that they have reached supreme enlightenment. Lacking the proper dhyana (samadhi) practice they will certainly fall.

5. “Continuing, those disciples who practice dhyana will find that as the skandha of form recedes, and the skandha of sensation manifests, they may find themselves not only without further progress (new headway), but seem to lose their previous gains. Surveying the two extremes, the situation may seem very dreadful and they may feel that they are in great danger. Suddenly they may feel incredible anxiety and great distress as if they were lying on a hot iron bed or as if they had taken poison. They may feel there is no reason to live and may even ask others to end their life so that they can thus gain release from their torment. This is called ‘being at a loss for the appropriate method (not understanding the necessary expedient method).’ They should understand that this is harmless. This type of experience does not denote sainthood. Should they (misinterpret this and) confuse this with sainthood, the mara of constant anxiety will enter their minds and may cause them to cut their own flesh or even attempt to take their own lives. Or else, suffering prolonged anxiety may drive them to escape to wild places and avoid contact with other human beings. Lacking the proper dhyana (samadhi) practice they will certainly fall.

6. “Continuing, those disciples who practice dhyana may find that as the skandha of form recedes, and the skandha of sensation manifests, they may experience a state of purity (emptiness) and peace (tranquility) that suddenly gives rise to a sense of boundless joy so intense they cannot contain it. This is called ‘experiencing lightness and ease that is unchecked by wisdom (uncontrollable due to the lack of wisdom).’ They should understand that this is harmless. This type of experience does not denote sainthood. Should they (misinterpret this and) confuse this with sainthood, the mara of joyfulness will enter their minds. They may burst into laughter (without cause) when they meet people or may sing and dance in the streets, saying that they have attained unobstructed liberation. Lacking the proper dhyana (samadhi) practice they will certainly fall.

7. “Continuing, those disciples who practice dhyana will find that as the skandha of form recedes, and the skandha of sensation manifests, they may feel that they have already achieved full realization. Suddenly an unjustified feeling of intense satisfaction may arise in them along with a feeling of superiority. They might suddenly simultaneously experience all sorts of various feelings of pride such as, although inferior, they are equal to others; although equal, they are superior to others; they are superior to superiors; they are not inferior to inferiors; and they are fully victorious. In their minds, they look down on all the Buddhas; still more so the less advanced sravakas and pratyeka-buddhas! This is called ‘viewing oneself as extraordinary (supreme) from which one cannot extricate themself for lack of wisdom.’ They should understand that this is harmless. This type of experience does not denote sainthood. Should they (misinterpret this and) confuse this with sainthood, the maras of intense arrogance will enter their minds. This will cause them to stop revering stupas and temples, to destroy sutras and images of the Buddha, and to declare to their patrons: ‘These images are but gold and bronze, clay and wood; the sutras are merely paper and cloth. Your own body contains the eternal reality of Buddha-truth; to ignore this and instead worship clay and wood is truly foolish.’ Those who are taken in by their words (believing them) might join them in destroying the images and sutras, or bury them underground. They will mislead the people and earn the retribution of the relentless hells. Lacking the proper dhyana (samadhi) practice they will certainly fall.

8. “Continuing, those disciples who practice dhyana will find that as the skandha of form recedes and the skandha of sensation manifests, in the midst of spiritual illumination and understanding of the truth, they may experience a harmonious feeling of infinite lightness and purity in mind and body. They may think that they have achieved sainthood and feel great contentment. This is called ‘lightness and purity attained due to wisdom.’ They should understand that this is harmless. This type of experience does not denote sainthood. Should they (misinterpret this and) confuse this with sainthood, the maras of craving lightness and purity will enter their minds, and they will then become self-satisfied (with their incomplete achievement) and stop seeking further progress. The majority of these will become like ignorant monks who greatly mislead people and then fall into the relentless hells. Lacking the proper dhyana (samadhi) practice they will certainly fall.

9. “Continuing, those disciples who practice dhyana may find that as the skandha of form recedes and the skandha of sensation manifests, they may misinterpret the clarity and emptiness they experience, suddenly giving rise to the idea of absolute extinction which denies cause and effect (the realm of interdependent causality). Cultivating emptiness, their minds may become so empty that they end up believing in permanent extinction (annihilation). They should understand that this is harmless. This type of experience does not denote sainthood. Should they (misinterpret this and) confuse this with sainthood, the maras of emptiness will enter their minds and cause them to ridicule the holding of precepts (rules of discipline) and criticize those who hold them as men of Hinayana. They may say that after a bodhisattva has realized emptiness he can dispense with prohibitions (because all is empty so there is nothing to hold to or violate). Hence, they may even indulge in drinking, meat-eating, and licentious behavior (wanton lust) in the presence of their gullible patrons. Because of the power of this demonic influence, they will exert firm control over their followers who will fail to doubt or denounce them. As time passes, demonic possession may lead them to regard urine, feces, wine and meat as good for food under the rationale that everything is empty. They will violate the Buddha’s rules of morality and discipline and mislead others into all sorts of offenses. Lacking the proper dhyana (samadhi) practice they will certainly fall.

10. “Continuing, those disciples who practice dhyana may find that as the skandha of form recedes, and the skandha of sensation manifests, they may experience that their empty illumination (clarity) deeply penetrates their mind and even unto their bones. Suddenly a feeling of boundless desire (sexual longing) may arise and as the feeling of longing grows intense, it may drive them mad with intense lust. This is called ‘lustful behavior arising from the stillness and peace of meditation and which cannot be controlled for lack of wisdom.’ They should understand that this is harmless. This type of experience does not denote sainthood. Should they (misinterpret this and) confuse this with sainthood, the maras of desire will control their minds, and they will insist that acts of lust are the bodhi path. They may preach the doctrine of unhindered lust to laymen and say that practicing sexual indulgence is making them sons of the dharma (heirs to the teaching). The power of this demonic influence will prevail during the Dharma ending age and hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of ignorant people will be swayed. When the mara demon becomes bored, it will depart the victims’ bodies, leaving them without charisma, and they will run afoul of the law of the land. For deceiving others, they will fall into the relentless hells. Lacking the proper dhyana (samadhi) practice they will certainly fall.

“Ananda, these ten states may occur in the practice of dhyana, and they all arise due to the interaction of the skandha of sensation with meditative mental efforts. Dull and confused (ignorant and deluded) practitioners do not evaluate their own level of accomplishments. When they encounter such situations, deluded people do not recognize them, nor are they able to understand the causes. They wrongly claim that they have attained sainthood (enlightenment). For uttering such a great lie, they will fall into the hells. After my nirvana, in the Dharma ending age, you must transmit this teaching so that all living beings may awaken to this message, that Deva Mara (heavenly demons) cannot take advantage of such states (and have their own way), and that practitioners can be on their guard as they strive to realize the supreme Tao.

December 8, 2012

Hooray – A friend told me about a new video recorder – screencast-o-matic – which let’s you make long videos (easier than Camtasia or Screenflow) and upload them to Youtube. I made a 50 minute lesson for you on the 12 labors of Hercules and various meditations and special gong-fu states related to this story, but after uploading it Youtube said, “Sorry, it’s longer than more info

10 minutes.” So I cut it down to 10 minutes, which is what you have here. Now that I have an EASY TO USE recorder, we’ll do more of these.

If you want to get the book, The Little Book of Hercules, which I highly recommend since it can be used as a companion to guide you through cultivation results for a long time, the purchase link is here:

November 7, 2012

Hooray! We are going through the last stages of editing our newest book, “What is Enlightenment?” which hopefully should be out before the end of the month. People have asked for this information, and based on the letters I get, it should be popular because it settles all the misconceptions running around. It basically explains what enlightenment is, shows the detailed path to enlightenment according to many different religions (and how they exactly match with one another), collects the personal autobiographical accounts of awakening from individuals within these many different religions and paths (what they exactly experienced upon enlightenment), and goes over the false paths and cultivation stages people take for enlightenment.

It’s chocked full of story after story after story to get the lessons across. After you read this, you will absolutely, positively know what enlightenment means and will recognize that everyone is supposed to be cultivating to attain “enlightenment,” but religions word it differently (such as “union with God”). This should be the first book on any spiritual cultivator’s list so that they clearly know the target objective, and then, of course, they need to learn how to practice. That’s why we previously published “The Little Book of Meditation,” which you can pick up through this link:

I think this one is going to be a blockbuster because all the major religions are covered, it contains the personal accounts of enlightenment from all these different traditions (very hard to collect), and it contains lots of other rare information (such as cultivation timetables to achieve certain stages). It makes perfectly clear that everyone in all these different religions is practicing various diverse spiritual methods but awakening to the VERY SAME THING! This will be a big shocker to the claims of uniqueness by each religion! I believe that the members of many religions will start using this book as a guide for their practitioners because it finally makes clear what it is that religion is supposed to be aiming for, pulling descriptions from every major religion that point to the same enlightenment … and teaches various ways to cultivate this attainment in stages. The Zen school, for instance, emphasizes dhyana cultivation as a preparation for awakening, but other schools teach different cultivation routes. Those differences are explained in a clear and concise fashion, with details and story examples galore.

I must get a half dozen letters every month of individuals who think they are enlightened, and haven’t any clue as to what enlightenment, awakening or self-realization really entails because they don’t have this information. If you attain superpowers does that mean you are enlightened? No. If your teacher dies and leaves relics does that mean he was enlightened? No. If my mind quiets and I feel energy inside or I feel like I’m one with the universe, is this enlightenment? No. If my mind stops and I seem to disappear and then regain consciousness hours later in meditation, is this enlightenment? No. Many mistakes of interpretation are covered that people often succumb to. In fact, using new translations, we go over thirty different mistakes that people succumb to in the earliest stages of the cultivation path. People of ALL RELIGIONS make these same mistakes, which is once again why we feel a lot of denominations will start using this compilation of diverse stories and common
teachings.

Enlightenment is found in nearly every genuine religion, but what exactly is it? What EXACTLY do you experience? What happens to you upon awakening, and before awakening? What are the stages of the attainment?

Here is the answer … in detail … and that same answer is surprisingly found everywhere when you look for it underneath the dogmas. The answer is non-denominational, which is going to make some heads turn because after reading all the case studies and scriptural passage, you’d have to work extra hard trying to deny it. This book collects the stories, biographies, autobiographies, and scriptural accounts on enlightenment from every conceivable spiritual tradition, thus proving that premise. They are just stacked upon one another – 500 pages worth — and by doing that you can see that everyone is awakening to the exact same thing. Most people reference Zen stories, numberswiki.com

but we have collected accounts from Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Nath yoga, Vedanta, neo-Platonism, Taoism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Vajrayana, Confucianism and other schools where individuals reported of their enlightenment attainment, and you can actually read these accounts side by side. It took me years
to just to collect all the books that contained these rare first person accounts. That time and expense has all been done for you!

Not only that, but we went into the foundational scriptures of most schools — pulling the relevant passages from the Koran, Bible, Buddhist Sutras, Hindu scriptures, Taoist scriptures, etc. — and picked out the exact places where they clearly talk about enlightenment and the characteristics of awakening. To top it off, we then show that the descriptions of our original nature or true self (that you awaken to) also match across traditions! Some call it Self, some call it God or Allah or Brahman, some call it dharmakaya or pure consciousness or absolute nature. Dozens of different names are used. This is where it really gets interesting, for there really is a commonality of religions that many have been denying but will no longer be able to do so after seeing all these materials side by side. Yes, all the religions claim there is a unity, but this is the first book to prove it using the highest target.

Whether you want to use the Christian explanations of Thomas Aquinas, Jewish explanations of Moses Maimonides, Lao Tzu’s descriptions, Shakyamuni Buddha’s descriptions, Hindu descriptions, Muslim descriptions, and so forth, we’ve collected all those descriptions and put them together so you can see that everyone is talking about the same thing. Finally you have a sourcebook to settle arguments. “Infinity” over here is “boundlessness” over there. “Permanence” over here is “eternal” over there. “Changelessness” over here is “non-changing,” “unperturbed” or “stationary” over there. “Selflessness” over here is “no self” or absence of the “I-am” over there. “Bliss” over here is “absence of suffering” over there. “Emptiness” over here is “absent of characteristics” over there. etc.

NEW, NEW, NEW!

One of my editors, extremely well read in this field with his own extensive library, was astounded that I was able to collect all these quotes and stories from different traditions, saying that this alone was priceless. Do you know how hard it is to collect such materials from Judaism and Islam? Another editor said this was the first time that a cross-denominational topology of the details on samadhi cultivation and enlightenment stages had made it into print in 2,000 years. Many colorful Zen stories (we’ll get to in a moment) have been re-translated so that it is like reading them for the very first time. There are also many rare teachings from cultivation texts including timetables for spiritual accomplishments, superpower achievements at specific stages of attainment, and other things rarely encountered in the run of the mill New Age books. The appendix will blow your mind as it details how to cultivate various samadhi attainments, what superpowers come out with each state, and what mistakes you should avoid at each stage of this cultivation … all the way to perfect and complete awakening.

What about Zen? We have taken over a dozen famous Zen stories and revealed the fact that the student had already attained a state of dhyana (samadhi) before awakening, and it was only then that he could attain enlightenment at the master’s prodding. Most people think that a student is just an ordinary meditator, a master one day comes along and says something witty to him, and then the student suddenly realizes his mind. It’s not that simple, and many interpretation errors of the Zen school are cleaned up like this one. The Zen school champions the practice and attainment of dhyana, and so we’ve pulled off the covers off of what those Zen stories were really about, including the error of “silent illumination.”

There’s lots more than even this — 500 pages worth! That’s a lot of stories and unique materials.

When will it be out? We’ll let you know — sometime near the end of the month. There will be a discount for initial buyers and then, as usual, the price will increase after a week.

August 14, 2012

This video of thousands of galaxies in 3D is absolutely amazing, and is like watching a movie in a 3D studio. It just goes to show how small our world is in terms of the size of the vast cosmos, for this is only a small section we are viewing. Everyone of these galaxies has millions of stars and countless planets, and it would be silly, after watching this video, to think we are the only life in the universe. Watch it and then try to convince yourself there is no life anywhere else … I don’t think you can do it.

Shakyamuni Buddha seems to be the only founder of a religion to have told us that there is life everywhere in the cosmos on the material plane (though many others have talked about heavenly planes). Nonetheless, the denizens of those worlds won’t know anything about Shakyamuni Buddha … or Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Moses, Guru Nanak, Confucius, Socrates, Lao Tzu or countless other founders of religion. They won’t know anything about these religious paths and their ceremonies, disciplinary rules or beliefs either, even though we often make them the pivot of our lives, so we certainly cannot say that any religion here on earth is universal. Nor should we then take any religion as the center of the world and then thumb our noses at the rest. It should give you pause to wonder about the karma that had you land in your own religion for this life.

Even so, Buddha said that the rules of the mind are the same across the cosmos. Physicists ponder whether the laws of physics might change in a different part of the universe, but the laws of consciousness will remain the same. So while denizens of other worlds will not know of our religions, everyone “over there” will have to trace consciousness back to its ultimate source to find enlightenment and experience the root source of life where all matter and mind are one. To find this all pervasive source that is often called pristine fundamental awareness, true Self, or original fundamental nature, I’ve been putting together a new book entitled WHAT IS SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT.

In this new book, to be released in a few weeks, I have collected dozens of cases of individuals from all sorts of religions who attained enlightenment, and put their various descriptions together in one single place so you can compare. I’ve also collected the descriptions from the great religions of their (supposed) highest spiritual attainments, whereby it becomes perfectly clear that the saints of all the genuine religions are talking about the exact same final spiritual target. Not the guys in charge of the religious hierarchies as power structure or organizations of social control, but the realized saints and sages. Christian saints, Jewish sages, Muslim saints, Buddhist saints, Hindu rishis, Confucian sages, Taoist immortals, yogic seers, etc. … they’re all included in this blockbuster.

I’ve finally also collected countless Zen stories of enlightenment, so it’s the first time I’m really writing on that topic showing what those Zen stories actually meant (I had to retranslate quite a few), and just for you (so the info isn’t lost) I dug up countless time tables for achieving various stages of the spiritual path to enlightenment from multiple traditions, and am completing another translation of the delusive states people often go through on the way to enlightenment so people of any religion can use this to guide themselves away from delusions.

Regardless as to the type of sentient life on other planets, as my teacher often said, all sentient beings are subject to the same laws of mind and will be seeking enlightenment in their own religions and spiritual paths. They will be shaped about his one great quest, as they are here, although the public doesn’t know it (unless they read this book). Hence, this book was written to show you this universal path and prove that on this small world, everyone is traveling that same spiritual path, going through the same spiritual stages, using the same practice methods and describing the same final attainment. One of my editors said he can finally take a book — this one — to their overly religious friends and show them that their worldview is just too small because all the comparison stories and word for word quotes from their own saints show that all the religions are really about the same goal of enlightenment, and samadhi attainments achieved through spiritual practice (such as meditation) are the preparation. It’s impossible to deny this any longer when you finally get this material.

So look for this new book, to be out in a few weeks (it’s large with all these quotes — my editor said it’s invaluable for those alone) — and I’ll keep you updated as it progresses.

December 27, 2011

There are just five days left to pick up a copy of our two new books before the introductory price increase evaporates.

There is The Little Book of Meditation, which I think is now the best how to guide on mediation in print, and Internal Martial Arts Nei-gong.

= = = = = THE LITTLE BOOK OF MEDITATION = = = = =

I have reduced hundreds of possible meditations you might try in life to the BIG FOUR you might want to master – (1) mantra practice or prayer recitation, (2) mental watching (mindfulness, introspection, cessation-witnessing or vipassana), (3) visualization practice [including the white skeleton technique], and (4) breathing practices of pranayama together with anapana, which hardly anyone ever discusses. There are also discussions on the seeing the light method, sexual cultivation, diet and detoxification and how to make up a meditation schedule. Since it’s 388 pages I finally had space to write it all down. It can even be used as a teacher’s text. Check it out.

Inside this book you will learn how to cultivate inner gong-fu, how this ties in with the martial arts tradition, and practice details for how not to go astray. This is a very practical book that discusses many martial arts topics that are rarely found in this genre, it spends a great deal of time talking about how to cultivate the Taoist notion of shen, or awareness, which becomes possible after all your channels have been opened and your mind becomes clear and calm. There is also a new detailed discussion on how to cultivate the Six Yogas of Naropa, together with Samantabhadra’s mantra method for opening up the body’s central channel.

I wrote this to help martial artists, but frankly, if will help anyone who is a regular meditator who wants to concentrate on cultivating internal energies for special abilities and/or powers, and if you liked the Little Book of Hercules, this is right up your alley. It’s has helped all my students who are not martial artists because they’ve learned so much they have applied to their ordinary cultivation practice.

December 26, 2011

I have finally finished two (2) paperback book projects for the holidays – the first on how to meditate, and the second on cultivating internal gong-fu (especially slanted for martial artists).

= = = = = THE LITTLE BOOK OF MEDITATION = = =

The first new book, which I am really excited about because I think it will become the definitive how to meditate properly book that will help a lot of people, is entitled THE LITTLE BOOK OF MEDITATION. This new book on how to meditate, and its effects on your body and mind, is like my Hercules book in that it is just as large (388 pages), and contains topics rarely discussed. I’m sure it will help even long time meditation practitioners because of some of the contents.

Over the years people have seemed to keep asking me the same questions on meditation time and time again, and I’ve answered the most common “how to” and “why does this work” and “why does that happen” questions about meditation in this book. Plus, I’ve thrown in a lot of extras …

I have reduced hundreds of possible meditations you might try in life to the BIG FOUR you might want to master – mantra practice, mental watching (mindfulness, introspection, cessation-witnessing or vipassana), visualization practice, and breathing practices of pranayama together with anapana, which hardly anyone ever discusses.

This book contains all the detailed instructions and tips on how to practice these meditation techniques effectively for genuine deep results. In fact, you know our books contain real contents rather than fluff. These 2 books will not disappoint anyone along these lines. There is more new but extremely useful information here on effective meditation practice than you will find in print anywhere else such as how to cultivate these techniques correctly, signs of progress, and what they are all about.

It also covers detailed practice instructions for the famous 9-bottled wind pranayama technique I always mention, and incredible details on the white skeleton visualization practice from India that I have not put anyplace else. Since it’s 388 pages I finally had space to write it all down.

This new book is very practical and contains a lot from the western traditions. It doesn’t just concentrate on these big four meditation methods, but reveals practice instructions and details on several others as well such as seeing the light, sexual cultivation and so on. There are even discussions on diet and detoxification supplements for cleaning out your body. The important thing is that it shows how to work two or more of the most effective meditation techniques into a busy schedule, and how to change your behavior. If you wanted just one book on how to meditate for yourself, or as a gift for friends to teach them how to meditate or introduce them to the topic, that’s this book! Check it out.

This book was written with the objective of creating a definitive source for how to meditate, answering all the common questions about meditation that I am sure have popped up in your mind over time but you had no one to ask about. It can even be used as a teacher’s text. I wanted to make it good enough that you could give it to friends who want to learn meditation for better health, energy, mental clarity, longevity or for spiritual purposes, and it covers all those bases and more. Therefore I have included lots of stories about my teacher, Master Nan Huai Chin, and how he defeated a holy fox spirit on Omei mountain, or would handle qi-gong visitors, or deal with people coming to him who had done great evil deeds and wanted to change their karma and behavior.

Grab it during the holidays at the discount price and pick up a copies for friend before the new price increase at the new year. This is GIHUGIC at 388 pages, (I only wanted to keep it at 50 pages when I started) and the stories will entertain you. Plus, if you like Vedanta and Zen, per requests I have included such high level wisdom discussions within to describe the nature of the human being and your mind. These discussions are also rare to be found in print.

= = = = = = INTERNAL MARTIAL ARTS NEI-GONG = = = = =

On to book number two for martial artists which is also available for the holidays at a discounted price soon to go up: INTERNAL MARTIAL ARTS NEI-GONG. This book was already released as an ebook earlier this year, and those download files have been updated to contain most of the new materials found in this print edition, which make it about 25% larger. So if you already bought the ebook, just download your file again and you’ll have most of these new materials. We put the book into print because of all the requests for a paperback, so we had to add a little extra, and we certainly did.

Inside this book you will learn how to cultivate inner gong-fu, how this ties in with the martial arts tradition, and practice details for how not to go astray. This is a very practical book that discusses many martial arts topics that are rarely found in this genre, and this new edition is quite different from the ebook in that it spends a great deal of time talking about how to cultivate the Taoist notion of shen, or awareness, which becomes possible after all your channels have been opened and your mind becomes clear and calm.

There is also a new detailed discussion on how to cultivate the Six Yogas of Naropa, together with Samantabhadra’s mantra method for opening up the body’s central channel. There are also discussions on anapana and the white skeleton visualization, although far more details are found in the Little Book of Meditation. The results of some interviews with a few top martial artist in China were worked into the new volume, and there is also a large emphasis on the idea of 10,000 hours of practice for mastering any skill.

I wrote this to help martial artists, but frankly, if will help anyone who is a regular meditator who wants to concentrate on cultivating internal energies for special abilities and/or powers, and if you liked the Little Book of Hercules, this is right up your alley. It’s has helped all my students who are not martial artists because they’ve learned so much they have applied to their ordinary cultivation practice.

This is quite different than most martial arts books because it’s full of meaty content, and now has been updated to give more details discussions on actual inner cultivation energy techniques, and how to dissolve inner blockages.

So finally these two paperbacks are done, and I hope you pick them up for yourself or order them for friends. The price goes up at the New Year, so act now and help support our humble publishing efforts at the same time.

August 10, 2011

For years I’ve had quite a few martial artists ask me to write a book specifically for martial arts, but I could not do this until I had the materials in “The Little Book of Hercules” out in print. Now their request has finally been made possible with our new ebook:

One of the various ways in which people can enter the path of spiritual cultivation is through the road of martial arts training and practice because in high level martial arts, you begin to cultivate your chi. From that point on, the path of spiritual cultivation is then a path of reality rather than theology and blind belief. You prove its nondenominational truths to yourself because you can start to feel your chi, and start understanding what the ancients taught about chi in martial arts texts. The Chinese martial arts movies you see on TV, and even modern western classics like Star Wars that emphasize “the force,” are all referencing chi cultivation in various ways. The same goes for cartoon shows like Naruto and Dragon Ball Z.

On the martial arts road to the Tao, called “Tao-gong” in the MA traditions, you start with learning the external forms or exercises. Then you progress by practicing mild forms of qi-gong, which is integrating the wind chi of the body with your movements. With enough expertise, finally you enter in the deep route of nei-gong, as explained in Hercules, where you are truly cultivating your yang chi and kundalini energies. This happens after all your channels and chakras start opening, and is equivalent to the Completion Stage of Tibetan Buddhism, as The Little Book of Hercules explains.

To explain this advanced route of martial arts cultivation, which is far beyond what’s found in most texts, we have put together this 70+ page ebook for martial artists. If you’re not a martial artist, you may still find this road of practice interesting because it explains many things that people often wonder about regarding the inner energy cultivation techniques of martial arts, and how to attain these special abilities which are now starting to be documented on TV. This level of teaching, however, goes far beyond those special abilities.

If you want to find out how and why martial artists are supposed to be able to fly through air, strike with incredible force that can shatter rocks, walk on water, and all sorts of things like that – which are basically samadhi attainments combined with martial arts – then you might want to pick up this book, once again with one-of-a-kind information found nowhere else. You can find the ordering details and Table of Contents at:

If you let go of your body, you’re not holding on to it. Hence all your chi can start arising in your body and opening channels because you’re not holding onto any muscles or sensations that would interrupt or block that natural flow which you just allowed to happen.

This is the actual secret behind the “dissolving blockages” methods of martial arts, but very few realize this secret or its usefulness for the highest levels of martial arts attainment. By witnessing without attachment you can know where energy blockages are within your body. By shining awareness on them without grabbing, they will simply open.

Anapana is the highest secret of Zen school dhyana-samadhi practice, that transforms the physical body, but few know this fact either. Whether for martial arts attainments or high spiritual practice, anapana helps open up the chi channels in the body, and thus helps transform the physical nature quicker than most other cultivation techniques. But not if you are pushing or holding on to your chi …

Here’s the main secret. You cannot open up all the tiniest of chi channels in your physical body unless you let go of your chi by cultivating any empty mind through meditation. That detachment, which means you are not interfering with your chi, allows it to flow freely without mental entanglements that would bias its circulations through habitually used, incorrect channel routes. If you cultivate a mind of detachment that is not enforced blankness or thought suppression, then your channels will open. If you try to force them into opening, you’ll always miss them as you cannot force chi into the tiniest channels.

Force will simply shunt energies into the largest already opened pathways, which is why force, and visualization of chi orbits, is not the correct way to truly open the chi channels of the physical body. You train and practice, letting go all the while, and finally your real yang chi will arise and do what it naturally wants to do without interference. That’s when it will open up all the proper channels as explained in “The Little Book of Hercules.”

At some point of true nei-gong practice, after opening up all your major channels because you attained the true stage of macrocosmic circulation, your chi will start running through all your large channels simultaneously, and you will feel this full body circulation everywhere. It will continue to do this for years, and only slowly will you make further progress from just the time involved in the prolonged rotation. If you lose your chi through sexual dissipation, naturally the force of this rotation will be reduced.

To progress quickest at this level of attainment, you need to meditate to reach a higher stage of letting go, at which point a new degree of yang chi seems to arise, and it can purify even further. Even more channel routes will open from this achievement that cannot be opened in any other way. This is a time when practicing such Zen and Vedanta techniques that cause you to detach from all the skandhas really bear fruit. They seem like incredible hurdles of practice, but only if you reason through “What was I before I was born,” “I am Awareness-only,” “Everything I see is just my mind,” and use such insight realizations to let go of everything, only then can you jump several stages of detachment so that even more channels and chi routes in the body can open. This necessitates a whole book in itself because of the complexities, so I can only give the barest of explanations as this is the stage of Tao-gong cultivation.

Progress in chi cultivation will proceed very slowly unless you strive to attain a new stage of emptiness realization, and for each breakthrough in learning how to let go of our thoughts and the body, the response will be like a new sudden kundalini arising within. That new arising will open up yet more channels at a higher stage of refinement, although the initially new rotation feels like a slow movement in molasses since more channels are opening at a new level, and the new rotation of chi will constitute a higher level of purification.

As you proceed on doing this at higher and higher levels of refinement, you can eventually transform your entire body into chi, at which point you will become able to make it appear and disappear at will, as many great Buddhist monks and Taoist practitioners were said to do. This is one of the highest levels of martial arts achievements. Since chi and consciousness are linked, one will then start to be able to cultivate the really miraculous martial arts capabilities mentioned in ancient stories.

Therefore if you want to attain a higher stage of practice, wherein a yet higher, more refined, more etheric, purer level of chi is reached, and many more channels open, the rule is that you can only do so by cultivating a higher stage of emptiness attainment by a new level of mentally letting go of chi and consciousness. The body is not you, so let go of it and its energies. You are simply pure awareness without a body, pure consciousness, and you have been holding on to the body and mind and identifying them as your self. Consciousness is not you, but just thoughts that arise and pass by, so you learn how to let go of consciousness through meditation practice, and since chi and consciousness are linked, with each stage of letting go a new level of chi rotation can commence in your inner etheric subtle body. A new level of bright mind or empty mind, or shen, can be reached as well because consciousness purifies as your chi purifies. The cultivation of the body and mind proce
ed together, step-by-step, through this route of practice.

Anapana is a practice of watching or witnessing while letting go and refusing to attach to the chi energies that are witnessed. People think anapana only refers to the physical breath, but after the internal embryo breathing commences, this refers to chi flows and chi circulations within your body as well, which can only be felt at the higher, non-introductory levels of practice. It is very similar to the Taoist practice of “inner viewing.” If you can witness your entire body as one unity of chi, through anapana practice, you will connect the entire chi of the body in one unity or whole. You will feel, witness, see or realize the body as one single body of chi extending from the trunk to the arms and legs and including the head – all one single body unity whole. So just witnessing will enable an opening up of all the tiny chi channels that will link the body’s unconnected or slightly obstructed channel orbits and produce one unified inner chi body. This will, of course, link the energies of the upper and lower regions of the body, and so you will be able to feel them as one unity in terms of an inner chi body, which is one of the necessities in martial arts practice. It is an infallible technique for integrating the upper and lower torsos into one whole, stressed time and again in martial arts traditions.

August 1, 2011

After all this time, The Little Book of Hercules, which shows you exactly what to expect will happen to your body as you make progress in meditation practice, is finally here. “Little Hercules” is not so little, but is actually BIG.

It’s a whopping 400 pages chocked full of new information on chakras, channels and kundalini, as well as special cultivation techniques, that has never been in print ANYWHERE. It should be called the “BIG” Little Book of Hercules because of all the rare content. I decided to just keep adding information since I wanted one book to answer the countless questions that continually arise concerning gong-fu and the physical stages of the spiritual path from all the different cultivation schools. If you have a question about what happens to the physical body on the spiritual path, and the problems you’re encontering if your practice has advanced, it’s probably in here. 400 pages is double the size of our last book, so grab this early bird special before the price on Amazon.com rises in one week.

The five editors who worked on the book each said that this book will blow open the field of spiritual cultivation because it reveals what has previously been considered the “secrets” of the path – including the mechanisms behind the visions people experience in various traditions as they start to cultivate their body.

If you want to know ALL the stages of a kundalini awakening, this book is for you. What people normally consider a kundalini awakening is just a tiny fractional part of the process, as it starts in some stages you are probably experiencing right now but don’t know it. This book takes you through the practices you can use to open up your body’s central chi channel (the sushumna) on through to the actual sequence of chi channel openings that occur (such as the microcosmic and macrocosmic circulations) in a kundalini awakening, or the Completion stage of Tibetan Buddhism, and even shows where this information appears in countless traditions, including the Bible. Yeah, the Bible!

The Little Book of Hercules also links incomplete descriptions of spiritual gong-fu from Chinese Taoism with Hindu tantric yoga and Tibetan Vajrayana practice, so if you follow any of these schools this is must-have, never seen in print information that will definitely help your understanding of the spiritual path. No more wondering what all those meditation phenomena are, and why some people get them and you don’t, and how to get them most quickly, how long they last, what’s the next step in the sequence, and what it all means.

Not only that, but “Hercules” reveals all the tiny details of these stages. And tells you how to cultivate them.

You’ll even see descriptions of these stages proving they were known to the ancient Egyptian, Jewish, Celtic, and even Meso-American cultures!

Finally the gong-fu explanations of so many different schools – Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Kashmir Shaivism, Shintoism, Vajrayana, Confucianism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, western alchemy, paganism, etc. – are explained and linked. Yes, the path is non-denominational because everyone goes through the same thing, and you finally have a guide book to all these phenomena.

But wait, there’s more … You didn’t think that was it, did you?

This book explains how opening up your chakras and channels and cultivating your chi and physical body to a state of purity and excellence totally transforms it and enables all sorts of super power abilities to come out, and so you finally have explanations behind some of these abilities.

You’ll also discover how internal energy cultivation is related to the attempt to realize our True Self, absolute nature or dharmakaya, because that’s the actual focus of the spiritual path. That’s what it’s all about, so this is a rare book to link the cultivation fo the sambhogakaya, or reward body of the spiritual path, with the cultivation of realizing our original nature, or discovering the dharmakaya. Rarely are the two efforts linked together so you can see how one supports the other. It therefore explains the connection between cultivating the sambhogakaya and dharmakaya, something rarely seen in Tibetan texts and the books of other traditions.

Then, for another “first in print”, it explains the mechanism behind visions that spiritual practitioners experience along the path or thoughts they often have out of the blue related to spiritual and physical matters, called nirmanakaya, and why visions differ according to tradition for the same stages of accomplishment. This is actually how “Heaven” intervenes to help spiritual practitioners, though of course it has to do with one’s merits.

And of course, because this deals with tantric body cultivation, there are deep discussions of pranayama, the skeleton visualization, sexual cultivation (probably the most detailed discussion in print), chi purification, chakra openings, and countless other techniques.

Basically, most of this content has never been in print before. We are having a one week special introductory price at our Amazon.com eStore, and then the price increases one week later. For the discount pre-release, get your gigantic copy now at:

If you want to reap the spiritual & health benefits of eliminating sickness and extending longevity that go along with spiritual practice, then The Little Book of Hercules gives you the secrets you want to know.

You’ll be very pleased because as I said, buying one book from us is like buying dozens from other publishers, and you cannot find this content elsewhere. It will help your practice for years! Hurry before the one-week discount ends! You can get it at:

If you’ve studied Tibetan Buddhism and want to know all the stages prior to and after the opening of the sushumna channel, and methods used to accomplish this, and COMPLETE explanations of what happens during the process, this book is for you … if you’ve been collecting empowerments this material will help your practice …

If you are a yoga practitioner and want to know about tantric yoga, and ALL the complete stages of the kundalini awakening (which have never appeared in print until this book), and why this is painful for some practitioners and easy to pass for others, this book is for you …

If you practice pranayama, you need to know this material …

If you practice visualization exercises, you need to know this material …

If you practice meditation, such as vipassana, and start to feel the energies within your body, and feel you are encountering problems (such as headaches, uneasy feelings, etc.) but cannot explain them, this book is for you …

If you are a Taoist practitioner and want to know all the stages of the opening of the body’s chi channels, and sequences of nei-gong (internal alchemy) which are not clear in Taoist books, this is for you …

If you are a Christian, Jewish or Moslem practitioner and you want to see how the Bible describes these exact same stages of gong-fu, this is the only book in existence that will teach you this material and you’ll find explanations of some Biblical passages that have remained indecipherable for centuries because they dealt with the chi, chakra and energy gong-fu transformations of the spiritual path …

If you are a martial artist and want to understand how to cultivate qi-gong and nei-gong, this book is for you …

If you are a Shintoist and want to understand what your practice is all about, and want detailed explanations of your practice, this book will pull away the mysteries for you …

If you are a western alchemist, pagan, student of the western mystery schools, or scholar of ancient western religions, this book shows you how various ancient western cultures represented the exact same stages of spiritual gong-fu in their art and literature because they are non-denominational … everyone who was an adept knew about the physical results of the spiritual path because everyone goes through them …

If you are a screenwriter, or novelist who wants to see the real Hero’s Journey that can become the basis of the next generation of movies and action best sellers, this book is for you …

Frankly, this material is too rich in content blessings for most practitioners but I had to write it because if I don’t, then who will? My teacher would probably say most people lack the merit for it. In Tibet you would have to wait nearly twenty years to get just some rudimentary bits of this type of teaching, and those materials would not include these advanced explanations that help you progress further and keep your sanity as you go through all these physical transformations of the chakras and channels.

So if you want to understand the physical side of the Esoteric School and the rudimentary beginning stages of physical transformation of the spiritual path that members of ALL RELIGIONS pass through when their cultivation practice is good enough, the door has been opened and curtain pulled back for this rare and previously “secret” information reserved to initiates. Now you’ll understand many mysteries in the field of religion and spiritual cultivation as they will finally be explained to show the unity of the spiritual path. How to find these answers?

April 23, 2011

The Little Book of Hercules: The Physical Aspects of the Spiritual Path

Using the Greek story of the Twelve Labors of Hercules, which outlines the progressive stages of spiritual development all advanced spiritual practitioners go through, this book presents full details on the step-by-step progression of the physical transformations that occur to practitioners in all spiritual traditions.

Whenever someone starts to consistently meditate or cultivate spiritual practice in a devoted way, there are physical changes that will occur to the human body. These physical transformations, called “gong-fu” in the eastern spiritual schools, are non-denominational signposts of spiritual progress. If you cultivate spiritual practice sufficiently then these phenomena will arise. If you don’t practice sufficiently or practice incorrectly, they simply won’t appear. Their appearance is a matter of proper devoted effort.

These phenomena include such things as the awakening of kundalini (yang chi) within the body, the opening of the chakras and purification of the body’s energy channels, hormonal transformations, the calming of consciousness and experience of refined mental states described as “emptiness,” and various other mental and physical phenomena.

Normally people think these phenomena, which occur because the mind starts to purify due to spiritual practice, only occur to individuals following eastern cultivations traditions such as yoga, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism, Taoism, Vajrayana and Confucianism. However, these purification phenomena that arise are totally non-sectarian and non-denominational. They equally occur to devoted spiritual followers within Judaism, Islam, Christianity and pagan cultivation traditions as well. If you cultivate spiritual practices sufficiently, these purification transformations will occur and if you don’t cultivate meditation or other spiritual exercises, you will not experience them but can only read about them. Your religion has nothing to do with it.

All genuine spiritual schools and religious traditions employ a variety of cultivation practices, or meditation methods, which are designed to help you achieve a quiet mind. Because thoughts die down from practicing these spiritual techniques, this resulting mental quiet is described as peacefulness, silence, cessation, calming, stopping, purity, emptiness, empty mind and so forth. Your mind empties of loud, busy thoughts and so you begin to experience mental peace.

When your mind quiets, proper spiritual practice requires that you remain aware during this experience rather than try to suppress thoughts from further arising. That practice of maintaining awareness during a quiet state is called witnessing, observing, contemplating, knowing, or introspection. As the mind quiets, you continue to watch the mental scenarios of the mind but without attaching to them.

Because the gradual calming of your mind means you are successfully letting go of thoughts, and because your body’s life force (chi) and consciousness (thoughts) are linked, as you let go of thought attachments you are also dropping the habit of attaching to the chi energies you normally feel within your body. Normally you are pushing your body’s life force energies around all the time, but with proper spiritual practice you learn to let go of these energies. You learn how to let them function without interference, which is what happens in a perfectly healthy body. Once you learn how to truly let go of thoughts that arise in your mind, with nothing pulling your chi this way or that way anymore then your kundalini energies will awaken and their natural circulation will start to purify your body.

When those energies finally arise, they will open up your chi channels and chakras naturally. There is nothing you need to do to prompt this other than cultivate an empty, non-clinging mind. Your outer physical body, due to the energies resultantly arising, will experience the transformational phenomena called spiritual “gong-fu.” Your chi will also purify, and thus so will your emotions and habit energies because of the body-mind connection. As you progressively let go of clinging to your chi, it will revert to its natural circulation which the way it is supposed to flow in a perfectly healthy individual before errant thought patterns warp its pathways.

These arising energies produce all sorts of physical phenomena described in religions and your mind will begin to experience all sorts of purified states as well. Cultivating a quiet mind leads to your chi arising, your chi arising leads to the purification of your chi, channels and chakras, that purification leads to a greater degree of mental purity or emptiness, and the two components of body and mind reach ever increasing levels of refinement. Eventually, from spiritual cultivation a practitioner can lay a strong foundation for achieving samadhi and then self-realization, or enlightenment, from their efforts at letting go.

Using the events within the Greek story of the Twelve Labors of Hercules, which outlines the stages of spiritual gong-fu all spiritual practitioners go through, this book presents full details on the step-by-step progression of these physical transformations as they occur to practitioners from all spiritual traditions. It covers the meditation practices that successful spiritual adepts have traditionally followed throughout history, and non-denominationally links the gong-fu experiences of these practitioners with the stages of the spiritual path.

April 11, 2011

The final edits are being done on the Little Book of Hercules. Though primarily a book on spiritual gong-fu (information on chakras and the channels and other physical changes that happen to the outer and subtle bodies when you meditate) that links Taoism with Tibetan Buddhism, tantric yoga, Old Testament descriptions of spiritual gong-fu and so on, I’ve tried to put in Conscisouness-Only teachings as well from Buddhism, Vedanta, and so forth. I just finished up this section and thought it might be helpful to your practice, so I’m sending it as an email and posting it on the blog:

Aside from the prerequisites of practicing virtuous ways, desiring spiritual progress and practicing spiritual cultivation to a sufficient degree, you really need the “right view” if you want to succeed in great awakening. It is safe to really throw yourself into cultivating the body only after attaining the right view of realizing that your true mind is ultimately empty, that you are not the physical body, and there is no such thing as an inherently existing person.

Your natural mind is empty and yet things appear in it. Despite these appearances, the fundamental, absolute, foundational essence of this ordinary mind is empty or pure in a way that transcends just an ordinary absence of thought. We say that the essence of consciousness is in some way empty, but that emptiness isn’t the same as the emptiness of space which has limits or borders. One might assume that it is a sort of non-existence of ordinary phenomena, but can we call it a non-existence when it somehow gives birth to appearances? Appearances arise within it.

The fact that something seems to arise (within the mind) and be there is what we call existence. On one hand you have this emptiness (non-existence), and on the other hand you have appearance (or existence). You also have the logical fact that what appears in the mind must be of the same nature as the mind.

As to the awareness or knowing that arises from the mind, this must be the function of the mind’s underlying essence, whatever that essence is. If you think about it, what appears in the mind (thoughts, sensations, images, etc.) must also be one with its nature or essence. The manifestations of the mind are part of the mind, so they cannot be anything other than one with its nature. So the appearances of interdependent origination in the mind’s empty true nature must be a unity. There must be an interdependence of inherent emptiness and dependent origination. In other words, the contents of the mind must be of the same nature as the underlying essence of the mind. This is why we say that emptiness and interdependent origination (all of existence, which is what we call “appearance” or the universe or “mind and matter” or the realm of cause and effect) must therefore be the same.

Unfortunately, you have to cultivate, cultivate, cultivate to get to the absolute base of the mind and verify this for yourself with direct experiential insight. It is not something you make up, not some dogma you adopt because of the creed of religion or teachings from various sages, but Truth you must awaken to through direct realization. You actually find the substrate of your True Self that is the essence of all mind and matter, all sentient beings and the universe.

Through spiritual cultivation you can discover that mind is ultimately experienced as a great original wakefulness without borders, without center, timeless and spaceless, that is intrinsically pure … like a mass of pure awareness that is free of names and forms. It is primordially empty and free, self-existing and complete in itself, and has always been present within yourself from the beginning. This is the basis of your mind and the five senses. It is self-luminous unbroken awareness that transcends the phenomena of birth and death that appear within it. It is an entirely one and unbroken state that encompasses all consciousness.

What supports it is the Supreme state of silence, stillness and purity, or True Self, that is unreachable by mind. It is not perceptible because it makes perception possible. Mind is one of its functions. What you are is beyond the mind and its contents, beyond being and non-being.

You are always that pure, eternal, equanimous, non-dual empty universal awareness (in terms of functioning) experiencing various transforming appearances, but you have to finally attain one of the degrees of self-realization, or bhumis, to realize this and the Source of the mind. To do so you must transcend the knot between the pure consciousness of undifferentiated being and the physical body, which is the ego or “I-thought,” by diving into the source from whence the I-thought arises to find the True Self. For complete enlightenment, that realization must be perfect and complete without stain.

Shakyamuni Buddha explained that ignorance stands in the way of this realization – we are ignorantly clinging to the contents of the mind, to consciousness, and hence cannot find its origins. Because of deep seated habits from infinite past lives (of the transformations of consciousness) you’re clinging to the body and mind all the time. If you cultivate you can start to achieve an independence of mental functioning which does not attach to the body because that attachment is just a habit. Eventually you can detach from consciousness itself to recognize its ultimate source.

Through proper meditation practice you will eventually achieve a degree of mental clarity and purity that enables this because your chi and consciousness will become pure, and you will reach a degree of mental stability because your channels clear and the chi flow through them becomes smooth. With this as a foundational basis, you might finally be able to “see the Tao” and understand the dharma like finally being able to see to the bottom of a lake because the ripples on its surface have all calmed. Or, you might cultivate peaceful samadhi states instead (that are manifestations of the mind) and still miss realizing the Tao, which means discovering its source. To see the Tao and realize these things is called prajna wisdom.

So even without any dharma teachings whatsoever, if your mind becomes clear, pure and calm you might see the Tao and self-awaken. This has happened to countless self-enlightened ones in the past, which is why great spiritual teachers have arisen from time to time and founded new traditions for people to help them attain the path. Self-realization is possible because the Tao is always there and salvation, or liberation, does not come from a creed or dogma. It comes from discovering your true self, what you really, foundationally are. It is not an artificial dogma or man-made creation you adopt because of belief but something you realize through direct experience. The Tao is not a creation, dogma, religious construction or artificial teaching. It is the underlying Absolute Nature. This is what you awaken to because this is what you are, this is your true nature or fundamental face.

Many people have independently awakened throughout history, although the Stage of Study and Virtue Accumulation certainly helps people awaken who desire to cultivate, and having a teacher who knows the path is extremely helpful. But such men and women who have awakened are exceedingly rare. Awakening is not an artificial dogma but a self-realization as to what you ultimately are, what is truly your Real Self or original nature. Religion is not necessary for this awakening, although religion is supposed to preserve and disseminate the methods for people to cultivate and awaken to their True Self, or “God,” and to help them along this road. Is your religion doing this for you?

After you awaken all sorts of miraculous abilities can arise because you have realized the source of all existence and are one with the base of all minds, all existence, all matter, all functioning. Sages assure us that you free yourself from pain and suffering, and all sorts of troubles come to rest because the true nature of the Self is peace. Buddhism speaks of this in detail though countless other sages from other religions mention this as well. They just substitute the word “God” or “Brahman” or “Allah” etc. for dharmakaya, Buddhanature, dharmadhatu, absolute nature, fundamental nature, True Self, Reality and so on. As to how the body came about and how ignorance first arose in this endless universe, or as to information on all sorts of miraculous abilities of the body and mind, you’ll have to go to these sources for those discussions.

If you don’t first “see the Tao” so that you can understand these matters and what the spiritual path is all about, you will almost always go astray in the form schools of Vajrayana, Taoism, tantric yoga, western alchemy and so forth, as they stress the physical body in cultivation. You’ll continue to take the body as something real or you. Even to say you are “bodyless mind” is partially incorrect because in using the term “mind” this refers to function rather than substance or essence. Awareness is just its function. We say we have a mind because we have awareness, which is the function, for without it there would just be inert matter or emptiness. Yet there is awareness or knowing and miraculous existence, so one must come to understand the base of that functioning by discovering the Source. You cannot perceive that base because it is what makes perception possible. You can only be it. It is beyond being and non-being, existence and the absence of existence.

My words here are only to help get you started in the right direction. People don’t make progress in cultivation because they never attain the right view, and are always holding on to other notions that actually inhibit their cultivation progress. They pursue superpowers and all sorts of other things other than to look for the base, the absolute nature, the foundational state, the Truth, the Self, the Buddhanature from which we have mind, consciousness and awareness. How to find it? The practice words for the path are, “Let go, let go” while continuing to let consciousness shine without restriction. You are always experiencing It.

To attain perfect enlightenment you must achieve three things: complete realization of the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya, rather than just the dharmakaya alone. This trio corresponds to the mind, body and behavior. The nirmanakaya, for instance, entails the ability to skillfully project images or thoughts to any realm of consciousness, meaning even to what we call individual consciousnesses because they are all part of the one body of consciousness. It is proper to start cultivating the other two “bodies” of the sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya, after you realize what the Tao is, by mentally experiencing the truth of emptiness for yourself. That’s the approach of Zen which stresses that you must work hard and first realize the Tao.

March 20, 2011

First a word about the terrible tsunami and nuclear power plant disaster in Japan. Yes, as predicted so many people downloaded my free “Radiation Detox” ebook, that I wrote years ago in case something like this (or worse) would ever happen, that my server crashed and bandwidth was used up. Therefore I moved it to my meditation site server which has lots of available bandwidth capacity. In case you still want the information, you can now download it and see the whole story behind its creation at

http://www.MeditationExpert.com/RadiationDetox/

Yes, you can pass around that link and post on Facebook, twitter it and so on. The server can handle it.

It is silly how many in the US are losing their heads over this problem and buying all sorts of emergency products when they are not at risk. The lack of common sense is astounding. I always say that it is had to teach the dharma to people who lack common sense in that if they get common sense things wrong, how can they understand higher spiritual matters. But alas, that is the fate of human beings.

This catastrophe is why I have to say once again that we need many more seed banks placed everywhere in the world. Yes, MULTIPLE SEED BANKS, one of my improtant issues.

The insufficient number of these is another MAJOR oversight by those who should be thinking of the future. If there is ever a major war it is seeds that the armies will want to grab and take home after all is over. After all, life has to return to normal and without agricultural capabilities you will be in trouble.

When the Russians entered Berlin at the end of WWII do you know what they went after with haste?

They went after the Gestapo files so that they could have the dirt on important people. That was a top priority. Invading armies always go after the secret police files first so they can find who was a collaborator, who did what, etc. and can then use that information in the future to blackmail important people (in the government and society) after all dust settles again.

You probably didn’t know that because you were not trained to think this way, and that’s why it escapes people that seeds would be ultra-important after a major nuclear disaster, such as war. The big prize would be non-contaminated, pristine non-GMO seeds, and so we need to sponsor many seed banks all over the world to protect from future catastrophes. Our politicians the world over like to think they are statesmen and spend mega-billions to keep each country at the military forefront (which definitely should be an objective) but hardly any of these individuals steps forward and demands that we spend $20-30 million on a few seed banks to preserve the future.

I don’t want people waking up to this after it’s too late, so once again I have to stand up and issue the warning yet again. I’m nobody, but I have to say it because maybe you’re a somebody who I can reach, so you need to think about these issues.

Do not leave our agricultural future of seed heritages in the hands of purely profit motivated firms like Monsanto because their actions will, as did the banks, end up leading to future agricultural disasters when the right perfect storm hits, and it will in time. Easy to see, easy to predict, easy to prevent but I doubt the statesmen will reign in what needs to be done.

In Buddhism there is something called “Right Livelihood,” or a virtuous work livelihood. A friend wrote me that he was making a presentation in Germany on right livelihood and needed a quote. I told him most people do not understand this. Soldiers fighting a war to protect their country, for instance, are practicing right livelihood even though most people hear “soldier” and think of the killing, and then think otherwise. Wrong, all countries need to be protected. A strong and capable military is not just necessary but an honorable calling.

Now consider case #2. A banker who starts initiating mortgage loans to the unqualified and starts selling those bad mortgage loans to others, justifying the lapse in high credit standards by saying to himself it will all wash out in the averages, is just cheating himself and not practicing right livelihood. You hear “banker” and immediately think “right livelihood,” but no – a man is defined by his actions, and the wrong motives and actions with foresight negate the label.

So similarly, decisions on the future of agriculture must be made on what is best for the people, and not what maximizes profits. It is now in the hands of people without foresight, and in the hands of “errant men of business” who have all sorts of excuses for their actions, but of whom 60 Minutes will have a field day and we will all suffer when a catastrophe strikes (such as the 5000 farmers in India who committed suicide due to the failure of their GMO seeds – this reminds me of the Nestle baby formula trajedy where thousands died because of unscrupulous marketing practices).

Yes, I know this sort of effort at agricultrual control is in league with national strategic hegemony plans, but they are playing it wrong. If this trend does not stop, the catastrophe from terminator seeds and the like will be bigger than the banking crisis. I kid you not. So, we need more seed banks and a rethink of who’s controlling our agricultural future and if the actions being allowed are in the best interests of the people. If not the results can be fatal for the public. But I digress.

Alright, enough of my “high on my horse” preaching … why the email? Because I wanted to send you another FREE gift. Someone sent me a 20+ year old video of Master Nan performing the 9-bottled wind on Youtube, so I’m sending you there so you can see the hand movements and body posture. I describe this practice in my books and articles, but you need a video to see it performed. This is the best overall pranayama technique I have ever found, and other pranayama experts tell me is the best they have tried, too.

Yes, I know the video is in Chinese language. Just ignore the Chinese language and WATCH for the posture and hand positions, and then go look up the descriptions which are too long for this email. The description of the practice is found in Twenty Five Doors and in many of our articles and publications. The video:

By the way, if you watch a lot of videos for work or fun, what I’m about to tell you will change your life. Go buy a copy of Enounce MYSpeed which can speed up video viewing viewing time by 3X and cut the amount of time you have to spend watching important lessons. This will transform your life. Absolutely. You can find it here.

http://www.enounce.com/

Enjoy the Free Gifts, and remember that to succeed in cultivation you need to exercise your WISDOM. Spiritual cultivation is not about sitting in a cave somewhere meditating in solitude but also about stepping out and making efforts to do what is right for society, not what is profitable, and your efforts do matter

March 16, 2011

I often tell people to practice the 9-bottled wind pranayama practice for health reasons, and to help prepare for better meditative states. You can find the instructions in many of my books, such as 25 Doors to Meditation, as well as on the website.

Someone sent me this video of Master Nan performing the 9-bottled wind practice. It’s in Chinese and probably over 20+ years old by the looks of it. However, I know you’re smart enough to just ignore the language difference and pay attention to how he holds his hands, elbows, etc. during the video as he goes through the motions of the practice and shows you how to do it in terms of posture. That’s what people always want to know.